I found Chapter 3 of the textbook to be a very heavy chapter. Beginning with the history of Canada and how Education has grown and expanded throughout time was interesting in a way that I have honestly never considered before. I've taken history classes before, but have never studied the history of education and how it came to be before.
Continuing on, I was moved by the video that we began watching in class on Tuesday, and how Robson describes the residential schools that were within Canada for a great deal of time. "In order for the Aboriginal people to be fully “ civilized,” it was determined that they must be removed from their families so that they could learn not only to read and write, but also to “ acquire the habits and tastes of . . . civilized people" (72). This statement of the horrific expectations that the government had for the Aboriginals hurts my heart. I'm ashamed to say, although I have heard of the term "residential school", I never understood fully what they consisted of. I have a lot of respect for the Aboriginals that were forced to participate in such awful experiences and I praise the strength in the survivors.
I was also very surprised to read about the segregation of the African-Americans, the Chinese and the Japanese. Robson states, "Calls for school segregation were based on the perceived threats that the Chinese presented to White children, both moral and physical" (79). And later mentions, "Most of the Chinese in Canada who were affected by the segregation policies were Canadian- born" (80). To me, this doesn't make much sense. If these children were Canadian-born, why on earth would our government assume they were threatening White children, when they themselves are Canadian? To be segregated purely because of race and no other acceptable explanation is just absurd. This really makes me question our authorities and hope that we make better choices in our future.
Discussion question: When do you think is an appropriate age to start educating children today on these intense and heavy historical topics?
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